While Washington dithers, violence advances

1:17 PM,
Sep. 17, 2013

A police officer stands guard Tuesday at the front gate of the Washington Naval Yard in Washington, D.C. Aaron Alexis, who had been discharged by the Navy in 2011 after what an official described as a 'pattern of misconduct' staged a two-hour rampage Monday at the Navy Yard, killing 12 people before being shot to death by law enforcement officials.

Written by

EUGENE ROBINSON

Washington was under siege on Monday, with SWAT teams racing through the streets and military helicopters circling overhead. Not immediately threatened, however, was the complacency that allows our elected officials to argue endlessly about the threats we face rather than work together to lessen them.

"We are confronting yet another mass shooting," President Obama said at midday, "and today it happened on a military installation in our nation's capital."

A few miles away at the historic Washington Navy Yard, authorities were just beginning to assess the carnage left by a gunman who ...